Small gains, losses mark indexes

Weak earnings reports cause drop for clothing companies, retailers

Marley Jay, Associated Press

Published
6:40 pm EST, Thursday, December 13, 2018

Detail shot of a Lilly Pulitzer outfit, with like items priced @ $50.00, on the Pulitzer website and available at Cuddle Bugs @ $20.00. This piece is just some of the consignment merchandise currently available at Cuddle Bugs Consignment Boutique, on Thursday, March 18, 2010, Saratoga Springs, NY. The shop owned by Kim Whisher, opened Saturday, March 13th, as the newest children's consignment shop in the Capital Region and the first in Saratoga Springs. The new biz offers children's clothing sizes newborn to size five, with occasional pieces for premies when in stock. Also usually in stock, toys, furniture and assorted baby gear, all with a couple of racks of discounted maternity wear for expectant moms. Whisher also has a rental program for some of the baby gear. Merchandize is priced significantly lower than retail prices in department stores and Amazon.com costs. (Luanne M. Ferris / Times Union) less

Detail shot of a Lilly Pulitzer outfit, with like items priced @ $50.00, on the Pulitzer website and available at Cuddle Bugs @ $20.00. This piece is just some of the consignment merchandise currently ... more

Photo: LMF

Photo: LMF

Image
1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Detail shot of a Lilly Pulitzer outfit, with like items priced @ $50.00, on the Pulitzer website and available at Cuddle Bugs @ $20.00. This piece is just some of the consignment merchandise currently available at Cuddle Bugs Consignment Boutique, on Thursday, March 18, 2010, Saratoga Springs, NY. The shop owned by Kim Whisher, opened Saturday, March 13th, as the newest children's consignment shop in the Capital Region and the first in Saratoga Springs. The new biz offers children's clothing sizes newborn to size five, with occasional pieces for premies when in stock. Also usually in stock, toys, furniture and assorted baby gear, all with a couple of racks of discounted maternity wear for expectant moms. Whisher also has a rental program for some of the baby gear. Merchandize is priced significantly lower than retail prices in department stores and Amazon.com costs. (Luanne M. Ferris / Times Union) less

Detail shot of a Lilly Pulitzer outfit, with like items priced @ $50.00, on the Pulitzer website and available at Cuddle Bugs @ $20.00. This piece is just some of the consignment merchandise currently ... more

Photo: LMF

Small gains, losses mark indexes

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

New York

U.S. stocks wobbled Thursday as the markets turned fairly quiet after a very turbulent start to the week. Small companies dropped and high-dividend stocks, which investors favor when they want to reduce risk, rose.

Major stock indexes spent the day switching between small gains and losses after several days of much bigger moves. Clothing companies and other retailers fell, weighed down by weak earnings reports, and a disappointing forecast from Delta hurt airlines.

Trading has been jagged over the last few months as investors worried about growing trade tensions and rising interest rates. Mona Mahajan, U.S. investment strategist for Allianz Global Investors, said traders aren't sure what strategy to use right now: many recent market favorites, including Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, have taken a beating. Yet the global economy is still growing, making high-dividend, low-growth stocks like utilities feel like a strange choice, she said.

"Over the last few weeks the mentality of 'buy the dip' has been replaced by something more like 'sell the rally,'" she said. "There is a little bit of a void right now, and I think that is creating some of this shift out of the most crowded and most profitable trades, and this overall shift in market mentality."

The European Central Bank said it will end its bond-buying stimulus program at the end of the year, but trimmed its forecasts for growth across Europe. The bank isn't ending its stimulus program entirely, as it will continue to invest money from maturing bonds and will take other steps to encourage banks to lend money.

The S&P 500 index lost 0.53 points to 2,650.54. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 70.11 points, or 0.3 percent, to 24,597.38 as McDonald's and Procter & Gamble rose. The Nasdaq composite fell 27.98 points, or 0.4 percent, to 7,070.33.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 22.62 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,432.70. The Russell has fallen 17.7 percent since setting a record high in late August and is trading at its lowest level since September 2017.

Among other issues, that reflects investors' fears about slowing economic growth in the U.S. and rising interest rates. Smaller companies are more vulnerable in times of slower growth, and they tend to carry higher levels of debt than larger companies do. Higher rates make those debts more costly.

Shaky reports from retailers may have added to those worries Thursday as apparel company Tailored Brands and Oxford Industries, the parent of Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer, both cut their forecasts for the year. Tailored Brands nosedived 29.8 percent to $14.13 and Oxford slipped 10.1 percent to $67.24. Smaller industrial and financial companies also dropped and larger retailers struggled as well.